The principal met his gaze. “Who would do this?”
“Someone with a lot to hide,” Ava said. She pushed the book back into its spot. “What about his freshman through junior years?”
“Probably the same,” Caden said.
They checked anyway. He was right.
Caden rubbed a hand across her tense shoulders. “All right, I have another idea.”
“So do I.”
He raised a brow. “Contact one of the classmates and ask to see their book?”
She shot him a tight smile. “Great minds.” She pulled the yearbook page out of her pocket. “There are several possibilities here. All we have to do is find one of them, call them up, and ask them for the fifth name on page seventy-four.”
“Should be easy enough. I’ll get Daria to see what she can find while we work our way back home.” He sent the text along with the high school information and a picture of the page from the yearbook. When he finished the text, he looked at the principal, whose gaze was ping-ponging between him and Ava. “Thank you so much for your time.”
“Of course. I’m happy to say this was the most excitement I’ve had today. I hope you find who you’re looking for.”
“Me too,” Ava said. “Thank you again.” She nodded to Caden. “I guess that’s all we can do for now.”
The man glanced at his watch. “I have a conference call in exactly three minutes. I’m going to head to my office. You can let yourselves out?”
“Of course,” Ava said.
The man hurried back toward the office when Caden’s phone pinged. “Daria said she’s on it and should have something for us soon. She’s getting ready to send me a long text explaining what’s on those old disks.” He took Ava’s hand. “Ready?”
“I’m right behind you.” When she didn’t pull from his grasp but allowed him to hold on all the way out to the car, he decided he might be making some progress. The thought tightened his chest for a moment. Asking Ava out was one thing. Letting her see he was serious about a relationship with her was another. She was so skittish about the idea of dating, he didn’t dare voice his interest. Besides, she knew.
He had a feeling the only reason she hadn’t run from him was because he didn’t push the issue. He let go of her hand to open the door and she climbed in.
“Thanks,” she said.
When they were on the road, she turned to him. “Thank you for coming with me. I honestly wasn’t sure what we’d find. Truthfully, I was halfway afraid it would be a wild-goose chase, but this trip only cemented that someone doesn’t want to make it easy for me—or anyone who decided to look—to find out who my father actually is. Paul Jackson was just an alias.”
“Yeah, that picture was cut out of the yearbook long before you—we—started this quest. Which means someone was afraid another someone would go looking at some point.”
“Yes.”
She sighed and fell silent, and Caden drove, glancing over at her every so often. “What was it like?” he finally asked. “Finding out your dad was in the CIA. I mean, that’s every kid’s dream come true, right?”
She gave a light snort. “In the beginning maybe, sure, it was kind of fascinating. But that awe faded fast. In the end, it was awful. Truly awful. It just taught me how to be a world-class liar.”
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Her words hung in the air between them, but it was too late for her to recall them. All the emotions that simply holding his hand had sent swirling through her had obviously rattled her brain.
“Ouch,” he said.
“I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that with such bitterness. I’ve had a good life. A different beginning than I would have picked, but I’m at a point now where I like what I’ve done, what I’ve accomplished, and who I am.”
“And that’s one of the things I like most about you.”
She raised a brow. “What?”
“You’re just . . . you. At least the you I thought I knew. The more I’m around you lately, the less I think I know—but I still like you.”
A small burst of laughter slipped from her. “Do I say thanks or act insulted?”
“It was a compliment.” He shot her a sideways smile. “Seriously, you don’t seem to worry about what other people think. You do what needs to be done and you don’t whine about it if it’s unpleasant.”
“Ha. That’s what being in the Navy will teach you.” She paused. “And trust me, I’ve done my share of whining.”
He laughed just as his phone rang. “It’s Zane. Put it on speaker, will you?”
She tapped the screen.
“Hi,” Caden said, “you’re on speaker with Ava and me as I’m driving back to the airport. What you got?”
“Other than a bad cold?” The voice didn’t even sound like Caden’s partner. Before Caden could get a word in, Zane started coughing.
Caden raised a brow. “Dude, you need to get in bed. That sounds worse than a cold.”
“Ah, probably bronchitis. I’ll get Patty to call in an antibiotic or some cough meds or whatever after I hang up with you.” Ava thought she remembered Caden mentioning Zane’s sister was a doctor at the hospital. “Putting my health issues aside,” his partner continued, “Daria called and said she found something interesting.”
“What’s that?”
“The family that was killed in San Diego, the Holdens? They were going by an alias.”
“Witness protection?”
“No. That’s the weird thing. The Marshals claim no knowledge of them.”
Ava frowned at Caden, who shrugged. “So, what was their real name?” he asked.
“Sidorov.”
“That’s Russian,” Ava said, her voice low.
“Yes, ma’am, it is.” Zane coughed again, a deep cough that made Ava’s chest hurt just listening to it.
“How did she find that out?” Caden asked.
“She asked for all of the information found thus far on the cases. She also used remote access on the kid’s computer and found he’d been doing a search on a genealogy website. Kid even did one of those DNA test things and found out he had cousins in Moscow.”
“Wow,” Ava said.
“Once he had that information, he ran with it. Found some old record albums of his father’s. The old man was in a band back in the early 1990s.” Zane paused for another coughing fit and Ava winced. “Sorry. Anyway, Daria took what he had and went further, tracking the dad down to his old workplace.”
“Why do you say that like it’s important?” Caden pulled into the airport parking lot and found a spot near the rental office.
“Because that’s how she found Vitaly Sidorov. From there, she found pictures, birth records, marriage licenses, et cetera. And the fact that after the year 1995, they disappeared. From Russia anyway.”
“And they ended up in the United States,” Ava said.
“Exactly.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“Oh, one other thing. Daria said she was sending us a video and that we should be sitting down when we watch it. She said it was pure evil and very hard to watch.”